Hidden by the Rain
by JeiGoWAY
Summary: After being kept captive by the Akatsuki for over a month, Haruno Sakura has finally escaped their grasp. When she messes up her own escape, she discovers that maybe escaping wasn't what she needed to be doing. Itasaku
1. poison

Looking at the sky, one would think that it was night time. Dark clouds spanned the whole sky. It was difficult to see through the dense sheets of rain pouring from the heavens. It was a storm considered harsh even for Amegakure. Just beyond the outskirts of the village, a kunnoichi struggled through the weather.

Haruno Sakura, numb from the cold, slowly trudged her way through the mud that was building up along the bank of the river. She was completely at a loss at what she was supposed to do. A war raged in her mind. Her sanity screaming at her to run the hell away and exploit this rare chance of escape she had been blessed with. Her limbs were disobeying that voice in her head though. Green eyes looked down at the burden she was hauling out of the river, questions building up behind their glossy surface. Tears of frustration were building up as she slipped once again in the filthy mud. She should just let go of him and then she could finally make it up the slippery river bank and disappear. She could finally go home.

The girl let out a desperate half growl- half whine of despair. She cursed and closed her eyes. Focusing on her empty chakra reserves, she scraped the bottom for even a tiny bit of chakra. She molded what tiny bit she could gather into her feet, using it to dig her way up and out of the hole they had begun to sink into and up the rest of the mud hill. At the top, she slung the two of them up over the ledge with the last of her strength and a cry.

"Cha!" she screamed, barely able to hear her own voice over the loud thundering of the rushing water and the pouring rain. At last, on solid (albeit wet) ground, Sakura laid on her back panting for breath. With tired eyes, she turned her head to the side. The soaked body beside her was sprawled limply out on its side. After a second, she realized that he was too still. There was no rise and fall of his chest. Surely, something like _that_ couldn't kill him?!

She sat up and leaned over the shinobi, turning him over onto his back. His eyes were closed. His usual hard expression gone, leaving his face looking soft and younger despite the lines remaining under his tear ducts. Sakura pressed her ear against his chest and listened. At first all she could hear was the rain, but eventually she heard a weak heartbeat. She continued listening. His heart was beating very weak and uneven. She didn't hear any breathing.

Sakura began to panic. What should she do? She still hadn't figured out why she had even dragged him out of the river instead of just leaving him and escaping. This was all his fault, anyways! _Everything_ was _always_ his fault! After all the many times he had told her that he would kill her if she ever tried to run away... Why? Why, then, had he done the opposite?

_She had managed to trick Kisame while Itachi had been away. She had thought that the man would have been gone a whole lot longer, but apparently he hadn't gone very far. By the time she had gotten out of Amegakure and encountered the Konoha anbu, she had already felt his chakra pursuing her. _

_Overwhelming relief had flooded through her at the sight of the shinobi from her home village. But, then Itachi had arrived and started taking out the anbu. Kunai had flown everywhere and Itachi's form blurred with his speed. Without chakra, she was completely helpless. Sakura had tried to stop him from killing them and get them to run away, but then one of them had turned on her. She had been too shocked to counter his attack. Suddenly, Itachi had appeared from nowhere and stuck his arm in front of the blade getting hit instead of her. She had stood there trying to make sense of things as a kunai landed in the dirt beside her. As she heard the sizzling of the paper bomb attached to it, she had looked into the mask of the anbu who had thrown it, wondering why he kept attacking her. It had been to late to jump away, and with the cliff to her back, Itachi to her front-left and the anbu to her front-right, she had nowhere to escape to. She accepted her fate, closing her eyes. The crack of thunder had startled her. She had thought it was the bomb and she had flinched._

_Her breath had been knocked out of her by an arm under her ribs pushing her backwards. His breath had been in her ear just before the blast sent the two of them flying backwards... and off the face of the cliff._

"_Foolish little girl..."_

Sakura flinched back to reality as Itachi's hand twitched. She tore her eyes away from the shredded ends of his Akatsuki cloak and the scorched flesh of his exposed leg. She had spent too long thinking! She placed her head back onto his chest only to hear silence. Her hands shook for only a moment as she panicked. She made her decision and tore away the heavy Akatsuki cloak. She would have to do this the old fashion way, since she didn't have any chakra left. Placing her hands on his chest, she began pumping his heart. She watched his face as she counted out her beats. He still wasn't breathing. She removed her hands and tilted his head back by the chin. The girl hesitated for a split second, but then decided not to let herself think about it as she lowered her lips to his and breathed oxygen into his lungs. She could regret this later. She would rather regret doing it than regret not doing it. Another breath and Itachi jerked, coughing up water. Sakura turned him over to help let the liquid out of his lungs. His back heaved as he took in several haggard breaths. Awkwardly Sakura waved her hand around the kneeling man until she finally just placed it on his back and rubbed to help sooth it.

It was so weird for her to see him like this. Sakura had always seen him as infallible. It had been one of the things she couldn't stand about him. Now, she was seeing that he was just as human as she was. Before her eyes, her ex-captor was completely helpless as his limbs shook and finally gave out beneath him. Itachi was unconscious again, but now Sakura could see the rise and fall of his chest. Sakura leaned over him to check his vitals. When she lifted his face off of the ground where it had fallen, her eyes narrowed at what lay beneath. Along with the mud and flattened blades of grass, Sakura could see crimson liquid being watered down by the rain. There was blood on Itachi's lips,too. That wasn't normal. Poison?

Sakura knew she would need her chakra to be able to fully assess what was going on inside his body, but she was running on empty. If only she had a soldier pill! Sakura's medical knowledge ran through her head and she recalled that some of the ingredients in a soldier pill would replenish chakra by themselves, even though it worked best when they were mixed with the rest of the ingredients. A couple of them were common enough that she might be able to find them nearby in a forest like this one. She looked down at her new patient. She couldn't just leave him here by the side of the river in the pouring rain in his condition as she went hunting through the forest for plants.

Once more, doubting her decision to save the life of the man who had held her captive for over a month, Sakura replaced the muddy cloak around him and began dragging him into the woods. She guessed they were lucky that Itachi was rather light, despite still being bigger and heavier than the kunnoichi. If it had been Kisame, she wouldn't have been able to move the huge shark-man at all. The girl snorted. Ha! If it had been Kisame, she would have left him in the river.

Sakura looked down at the criminal she had just brought back to life, wondering what was wrong with her thought processes. One criminal wasn't different from the next was he? Why would she be willing to help one while she was ready to let the other die? Images flashed in her head from the past month. The dark shadows that had loomed over her just before she had been abducted. The red glow of the sharingan in a dark room upon her awakening. Kisame's grinning shark-face as he threatened to eat her, bones and all if she ever tried to spear him with a fork again. A brief glimpse of Kisame and the blond-haired Akatsuki laughing drunkenly through a cracked open door as she was led back to her room by the Uchiha after a sad escape attempt in the wee hours of the night...

Looking out of her chakra sealed window to see a figure bathed in the moonlight laying back against a tree staring up at the stars. Being caught staring at the moonlit figure as a blank crimson gaze is turned to stare back at her... A finger under her nose as her second attempt to spear the shark (this time with a chopstick) failed, and she wasn't eaten alive; only laughed at... Looking at Itachi, after laying it down on Kisame during a spar, only to see what she could only guess was a smile in his eyes for only a second. Kisame's face turning red when the blond Akatsuki brought it up later at dinner.

Amidst the raindrops running down her face, fresh tears were mixed in. She hadn't seen it while she had still been held captive in their base, but they hadn't treated her all that horrible after all. Now that she was free to go whenever she wished, Sakura hated herself for being able to admit that she had almost enjoyed their company. It scared her to think of what this meant about her. Her conscience was eating her up when she remembered thinking just moments ago that she would have left Kisame in the river to die. It felt like either way she was the horrible one. Horrible for helping and possibly caring about criminals. Horrible for letting them die. But she hadn't let Itachi die. And, though he was a criminal, she could tell that her perception of him had changed since before she had actually known him.

With tears of frustration and self-hate swimming in her eyes, and confused thoughts swimming in her head, Sakura stumbled through the rain. After some time, she came upon an old run-down shed. The inside was bare, but at least it was dry. She laid Itachi down and checked his condition. His breathing was still harsh and in his unconscious state, nothing stopped the pain from being clearly seen on his face. He couldn't remain in this condition. Sakura turned back out into the storm closing up the shed again behind her.

Hastily, the medic dug through the mud for any trace of the plants she needed. Much to her relief, luck was on her side. She found one that would guarantee her to regain some chakra and dug up its roots. She eyed the scraggly bits of root that was covered in clumps of mud. With a sigh, she rubbed it as clean as possible before hesitantly sticking it in her mouth and chewing. She couldn't say it was the worst thing she had ever had to eat, but it definitely made her want to spit it back out and maybe puke a little. She forced all of it down anyways.

She found a couple more of the same plant around the area, and by the time she made it back to the shed, she could feel her body generating chakra at a much higher rate than usual. Already, as she knelt beside the comatose Uchiha, she felt she had enough chakra to use it to examine his bloodstream and organs for poison. She removed the cloak once more and reached for the arm that had gotten stabbed. As soon as she touched his skin, she noticed that his temperature was much hotter than it should be. He had a fever. That, too, was a sign of poison.

Sure enough, as Sakura's chakra entered his bloodstream she could see in her mind's eye the dark substance polluting the healthy white blood cells. When she began inspecting the organs, she found traces of the poison in many of them, but what caught her attention the most was his lungs. He had coughed up blood earlier and now she was looking at the cause. The poison was eating away at his lungs far worse than it was eating away at the rest of him. A list of lung-targeting poisons went through her head. Most poisons on that list required herbs for the antidote that only grew in certain climates. Either that, or the poisons required extracting by the way that she and her shishou practiced. That took alot of chakra, though.

The more she thought about it, the more clear it became to her how dire Itachi's situation really was. As she closely inspected the damaged cells of his lungs, she noticed differences in the way they were deteriorated. Some parts of the lungs even seemed to have been in a deteriorating state for a much longer time. Longer than the time between his poisoning and now. Years.

Realization hit her. He was extremely ill. The painful debilitating kind of ill. The poison wasn't specifically targeting his lungs, they were just especially susceptible to it. Her list of possible poisons changed and she decided it was extremely likely to be one that she could handle. Either way, it had to get out of his bloodstream.

She didn't have enough chakra to do the extraction that way, but there was another that she had enough chakra for. It wouldn't completely get rid of the poison, but it could get rid of enough to save his life in the meantime.

Sakura looked closely at his blood cells with her chakra. Her lips twitched into a smirk. His blood type was AB. She should have guessed.

With this information, she began the process of filtering out the poison in his blood. She slit one of his wrists and turned him on his side, letting the crimson liquid flow out and stain the ground. When his complexion started turning paler and paler, she ripped a strip of her shirt off and turned it into a tourniquet above the crease of her elbow. Next, she formed a string of chakra mixing it with some of her cells until it gained a solid form. It became a functional vein outside of her body. She punctured her arm and attached the newly created vein to the hole in her own artery and the other end to Itachi's unoccupied arm.

After much time had passed, Sakura, feeling quite drained herself, decided to check his bloodstream again. Her inspection showed that most of the poison had exited his body. Looking at his face, she could tell that his pain had extremely diminished. His face was still pale as was her own, now. She began to feel faint herself and knew that she wouldn't be able to take much more of this before she passed out. With shaky hands she undid the connection between them binding the two new cuts they both sported. The ground around them was soaked in Itachi's blood. Slightly unnerved by the sight, she dragged his limp form a couple of feet away so that he was no longer lying in it. With the image out of her head now, the worn out kunnoichi sunk to the ground. Her eyes were heavy and the sound of the rain was lulling her to sleep. She realized that it would be dangerous for them both to be completely off guard and asleep, but she hadn't exactly been too aware before now anyways.

With a sigh, Sakura gave in and laid down using her arm as a pillow. To hell with it... if someone tried to attack them now, she'd put up hardly any more resistance even if she _were_ awake in the sate she was in. Her eyes were on Itachi's face. The way he looked so young...so... innocent... her mind reeled. Innocent? She scoffed at herself. She had seriously lost too much chakra and blood today. That, and the change from his normal demeanor was just so shocking... she couldn't help but wonder... was there something more to this dangerous criminal? Was this the face he always kept hidden? Sakura's consciousness was slipping away from her, yet one last thought flowed around in her mind: She would have to make sure he doesn't die until she can get some answers from him. With a worried smile on her face, the kunnoichi succumbed to sleep under the drumming of the rain on the room, lying beside the most dangerous enemy of her village.

* * *

**Thanks so much for reading!**

**Ok this is my very first story. I don't know, yet, if I will leave this as a one-shot or make it a multi-chapter story. I know where I would want to take the story, but I don't know if I should. Reviews would be helpful, I'm still a beginner at writing.**


	2. chakra

Sakura was jolted awake by something in her dream. She was shaking and an image from her dream passed through her head, but in the next instant, she couldn't remember what she had even been dreaming about.

She could feel sweat on her forehead as she began to take in her surroundings. Memory of yesterday's struggle was brought forth as she spotted Itachi lying a foot or two away with his back to her still unconscious. She could see the rise and fall of his chest and knew he hadn't died in the night.

Looking to the door of the little shack they were in and through the cracks in the walls, she could see light shining through. With Sakura's ninja training, she silently rose and exited the shack without waking the shinobi beside her. Outside, she was almost blinded by the light. She held a hand up to her eyes and looked around. Through the light green canopy that slightly shielded her from the sun's rays, she could see that the sun was right in the middle of the sky. It was noon.

She mourned the loss of half the day, but realized that it was good to have slept so long. The kunnoichi held her fist up clenching it, reveling in the feel of her chakra flowing through her again. This was the most chakra she had gained since she had been with the Akatsuki. She hadn't been _allowed _this much.

She eyed the door of the shack out of the corner of her eye. The man sleeping inside wouldn't hold the same advantage as he had all month, now. She even smiled at the thought that he was quite at her mercy in his ill,weakened state.

Feeling dehydrated, Sakura wondered just exactly where that river they had fallen into was. Looking at the ground, she found her footprints, along with a line, caked into the dried mud from where she had dragged Itachi through there. She frowned. She really was lucky that none of their attackers had found them.

Following the footprints, she tracked their progress backwards. She could already hear the rushing of the water. She realized they hadn't gone as far from the river as she had thought they had the night before as she stepped out of the trees and knelt by the water. She sighed as the cool liquid touched her lips. As she drank the water, She figured she ought to find a way to bring some back for Itachi as well.

* * *

A figure sat up in the darkness of the trees, legs hanging off a branch. He watched the kunnoichi drink from the river as he had been watching her since she had emerged from the shack. He had seen the way she smirked first at her fist, then at the little shed. He could feel her chakra. It was of little concern to him.

As he watched her, she began to wash her face off with the water, sighing with content. She rubbed the water up her arms before pausing and looking around her. At first, he thought that she had somehow sensed him, but as she stopped looking around and her hands went to the hem of her shirt, he realized her intentions.

The figure lighted from the branch, landing on the ground soundlessly. In the next instant, he was standing inches behind the girl.

"Sakura"

She started at the sudden voice behind her. She looked down as she felt someone's hand on hers where she had been about to pull her shirt off in the interest of taking a quick bath in the river.

Sakura jolted away from the hand and the voice, turning on her heel to face whoever it was, when her foot hooked on a rock and she lost her balance. As she fell backwards, she stuck her arms behind her and with the use of chakra, instead of splashing into the water, she landed on top of it. She had no intention of 'bathing' in that manner. Especially not with her newly realized audience...whoever it was.

Looking up at the figure, who she was quite wary of at the moment given her current position, she couldn't quite make him out at first. The light was behind him, turning him into a dark shape, but then he moved his head and it blocked the sun and she could clearly see who it was.

Her mouth fell open and she stuttered, "Wha-? H-how?" The Uchiha smirked down at her, and the kunnoichi's eyes narrowed, figuring it out.

* * *

Back in the woods, a bird flew away startled when from inside the nearby shack, a loud poof sounded as a kage bunshin was released.

* * *

Sakura picked herself up off of the water, keeping Itachi in her line of sight. She looked him up and down with medic's eyes. He was the picture of health. She found it hard to believe he had even been injured.

Suspicion entered her eyes as she realized that his condition was_ too_ perfect. Why was his Akatsuki robe whole again? What happened to the burned ends?

He gave her room as she dusted herself off from her fall. She rung her skirt out where it had dipped into the river when she fell. When it was lifted up, the water poured out of it and her skin-tight sport shorts underneath were exposed. She saw Itachi avert his eyes.

Seeing her chance, Sakura quickly lifted her fingers, making a hand sign. Itachi noticed immediately her use of chakra, but he was too late to stop the words out of her mouth.

"Kai!"

Sakura watched his eyes flicker and widen fractionally before becoming a hard blank stare. As before, the medic looked him up and down. The burns on his hand and leg were sweltering, she could see. She hadn't been able to yesterday, but if they didn't get disinfected soon, he would really be at risk. His finger twitched where her eyes rested on his hand and she looked up to meet his heavy gaze.

She noticed the deepening of his stress lines and the paleness of his face. He looked... haggard. Wordless communication passed between them. He resented the fact that she was seeing him like this. She could read that in his eyes. She knew that he could probably see pity in hers and hated it. She wondered if he saw the guilt. He had obtained those injuries in the place of her... for whatever reason he had done it.

As she watched, something shifted in his eyes. But then he turned away. She had seen it though, and it made her heart stir. Gratitude. He was alive after all and wouldn't be if she hadn't dragged him out of that river.

She found herself glad that she had made the choice she had. If just for that look she had seen deep behind his eyes. Before long, though, the smile that had begun to grow on her face disappeared. Her face paled as Itachi's head turned and pointed to their left. In that direction, she could feel what he had felt. Kisame's chakra was heading towards them at a fast, even rate. She was surprised that he was even able to move,yet, and the appearance of his chakra reminded her of the most important reason she shouldn't be smiling.

Her freedom. She had given it up. She had woken up reassured, when she had seen Itachi still asleep. She had thought she could have still escaped. She had been discouraged to discover that Itachi was indeed quite well,even if he was sporting some injuries and a lack of chakra. But, she had still hoped that she stood a chance. It was the closest to evenly matched they had been since they had captured her. but now... she had to get out of there before Kisame showed up. When he did, she'd lose all hope.

Itachi slowly turned to face her again in time to see the panic growing in her. He had anticipated that his partner would show up soon, and was prepared for Sakura's reaction.

The Uchiha reached for her and her adrenaline jumped in. In an instant, the ground around them was shattered by her fist. As dirt and rock flew in the air between the two, Sakura turned, gathering chakra into her legs to sprint the other direction from the shark-man's encroaching chakra.

She only just made it over the river when she was knocked to the ground on the other bank of it. Her leg shot around in a circle behind her, chakra loaded, but somehow Itachi dodged that and her face was pressed into the dirt by a hand in her hair. She felt a weight press onto her back and her arms were wrenched behind her. She grit her teeth at the uncomfortable, yet familiar pain of this arm position. She was almost used to the feeling by now as she felt chakra form a bond around her wrists.

Her heart was hammering and for a second she still tried to upturn his weight off of her, but after being held prisoner by them for so long, she realized when she had lost. She stilled, and soon the grip in her hair loosened from its painful hold, yet still remained there keeping her from lifting her head.

_Damn it! _Sakura scowled at the ground as hopeless tears stung the corners of her eyes. _Nothing changed!_ She had thought she was a match for him now! That she hadn't had to be worried until Kisame got there! But here she was... with Uchiha Itachi currently using her for a chair. _Damn it! _She felt so worthless...

Itachi looked down at the kunnoichi below him. She had stopped struggling, and as he realized how tightly he had grabbed onto her hair, he loosened his grip. He could feel the smooth locks between his fingers. Despite the grimy mud here and there, he could tell that it was just as soft as he had thought it would be.

The girl was silent, when normally she would be yelling at him. That was how she had treated the other Akatsuki members who had ever managed to get the best of her. But he noticed she was shaking, and for a moment he slightly heard her sharp intake of breath. Guilt rushed through him. _Sakura... I'm sorry..._

* * *

Hoshigaki Kisame could feel a cold sweat coming on. He jumped from branch to branch slowly coming closer to the two chakra signatures. He wasn't afraid of his partner... no, it was just that he knew how much trouble he was in with Itachi right now. It was the look that had been on Itachi's face as the Uchiha had glared down at him. In his paralyzed state, the shark-man had found the sharingan boring into him, glowing a brighter red than normal, actually very terrifying.

His life seriously could have ended without a fight right then and there. That kunnoichi had done a good job on him. The paralysis she had put him under had been absolute. He couldn't move a muscle and his lungs were hardly able to move to let him breathe. But his death did not come.

His partner had quickly put two and two together and had stormed off after the little leaf. Kisame didn't know if the Uchiha just didn't have time to kill him, or if it was just another thing to add to the growing list of inconsistencies between that man and his title of 'Deadly, rogue, clan-killing Akatsuki member'.

Given the signs Itachi had left for him to follow, Kisame guessed that he didn't really have intentions of trying to kill him for letting Sakura get away. He had passed the dead anbu members on his way, finishing one off that was at the bottom of a cliff with a broken spine, but still breathing. That had given him a slight pleasure, but the sick feeling was still in his stomach even as he approached the spot where he could feel his partner's chakra signal along with the little leaf's.

As he broke through the trees into a clearing, he hid his unease and eventually forgot it at the sight before him.

* * *

Itachi caught the humor in his partner's eyes as the shark-man sauntered towards them. He felt Sakura stiffen beneath him, no doubt sensing Kisame and disliking being unable to keep her eye on him. Suddenly she flinched as she heard his booming laugh.

"Itachi-san! Here you are! I see you've found yourself a new..." He paused, trying to decide on a description of what it looked like, "...throne." He was eying the exposed backs of her legs and therefore was watching as she chakra kicked a rock backwards at his face, and dodged it easily.

Itachi wanted to rub his temples at these two's antics. Kisame always riled her up, and he always ended up taking the blunt force of her reactions. Such was happening now as her struggling had resumed full force along with a stream of curse words involving shark soup. He was forced to tighten his hold in her hair again to keep her from gaining any leverage on him. He felt her building up more chakra and looked to his partner.

"Kisame."

"Right."

Sakura stopped her squirming at the obvious command that had been passed between the two Akatsuki members. She heard Kisame walking towards her on the rocky surface and could see in her mind's eye the giant sword being raised, that had been dining on her chakra for the past month. The feeling of having your chakra drained by Samehada was awful. It felt like... dying.

"Stop." She had lowered her voice, from her earlier yelling at Kisame, to a low plead. "I'll be good..."

There was a moment of silence, but then Kisame chuckled softly. "Sorry, little leaf. We can't let you keep your chakra."

And with that, Sakura began to feel the sickening sensation of her chakra being pulled from her body. As all of her chakra was sucked out of her, except for less than even the normal civilian level, Itachi released his hold on her and stood up.

Her joy, earlier, from having her chakra back had been short lived, and now she was back to being weak and dizzy. With the sound of Samehada digesting behind her, she rose up onto her knees and puked.

It had happened the first time they had stolen her chakra,too, but hadn't happened since. She had thought it was because she had gotten used to it after that one time. Now,she realized that it must have stopped because she hadn't hardly had time to build up any chakra between drainings. This time,like the first time, she had had most of her chakra.

Also, much like the first time she had been drained, just before they had stolen her away, she began to feel her vision going black and her hearing fading away as she felt herself passing out. She didn't even feel herself hit the ground, she was already so out of it...

**Author's Note: **

**So, I decided to go ahead and continue the story! Thank you those of you who reviewed last time, it was helpful!**

**I know the chapters are pretty short, but it's just the way I do. It also means faster updates ;)**

**Again, please tell me what you think about it. I wrote this like really late for me. I'm gonna read over it again in the morning to make sure I didn't miss anything major because right now, my head hurts and I'm about to pass out and sleep ^-^'**

**Thanks for reading! I hope to have the next chapter out soon.**


	3. monsters

Sakura's head was swimming as she came to and she still felt deaf. She imagined she had only been unconscious for a couple of seconds, but it had felt as if she had just slept eight hours. The feeling of the stony surface she was lying on, though, was enough to convince her that she was _not _in her bed. Her vision was still currently MIA, but soon, she could start to hear muffled voices. Then she felt someone begin to lift her up and the muffled voices suddenly regained names in her weakened mental state.

Sakura gave a complaint at being lifted off the ground by one of the two Akatsuki; she couldn't tell which. Her own voice sounded far off in the distance. She felt pinpricks as her eyes started coming back to life. She pried them open despite how heavy her lids were and she was met with a pair of red sharingan eyes. Her hearing had finally just returned too, so she clearly heard her own groan of annoyance as she was forcefully pushed back into unconsciousness.

Itachi let out a breath as the kunnoichi slumped back down, asleep in one of his genjutsus. He looked up to the blue face of his partner who was holding up the tiny girl by a hand around her wrists. The shark-man's silver eyes showed signs of apology. The Uchiha simply said everything he needed with one look. _Control that monster you use for a weapon or _Iwill_._

"Samehada just gets carried away when they have more chakra." Kisame mumbled under his breath as he heaved Sakura's limp form over his shoulder securing her there by an arm around her legs.

Itachi digressed as he turned to the trees.

"Come on."

Kisame followed his partner up into the branches, before coming to a sudden stop behind the paused Uchiha.

Itachi looked back towards the east as he felt strong chakra signatures heading towards them. He recognized a familiar one among them.

Kisame turned to look at what had caught his partner's interest. When he swung around, both shinobi heard a loud thunk. Itachi's face slowly turned to eye his partner with discontent.

"heh...heh..." Kisame laughed, bringing his hand up ruffling his hair in a nervous gesture. When Itachi didn't join in his amusement, instead maintaining the slight glare directed at him, kisame dropped his smile. "...sorry."

Sakura wasn't going to be very happy with him when she woke up with another lump on her head from colliding with a tree.

Itachi ignored his partner as he brought his hands together, forming several hand signs. The genjutsu he placed completely erased all traces of their little stay by this river. He would have to clean up his mess by the cliff, as well.

"Let's go."

"Hai."

Itachi wanted to put some distance between himself and the incoming chakra signatures. The time had not come, yet.

* * *

They were still a while away from their base when they felt warm chakra emanating from the rings on their fingers. Leader was calling them.

They stopped, the kunnoichi was tied up, and though they had managed to pretty much lose the four chakras, Itachi set up another genjutsu around them out of precaution.

Kisame and Itachi sat cross-legged, forming hand signs, and soon enough their chakra was transported to a place far away.

The two didn't have to have their physical bodies with them to feel the coldness of the dark room.

"I have a mission for you."

"Hai. Leader sama." Kisame acted as spokesman for the both of them.

"I need you to leave immediately for sound. There have been rumors that I want to be sure of..." Here, he eyed Itachi, "... concerning your little brother."

Itachi nodded. He was displeased with the idea of going to that horrible 'village'. But, he supposed he at least could be sure that he wouldn't run into Sasuke there. He really didn't even need to go all the way to sound to ascertain the truth of the rumors. He had heard them as well, and he knew it was not coincidence that his brother was all the way out here with a team so close to Rain. His little brother was searching for him.

"If I may ask..." Itachi locked eyes with his leader's, doujutsus clashing, "this is the sort of mission Zetsu-san would typically be assigned, is it not?" The fact that Kisame and himself were getting this mission instead was reason to be suspicious.

"Ah, yes... Zetsu has... other things he is taking care of for me." The rinnegan wielder gained a far off gaze as his mind dwelt on the 'other things'.

Curiosity nagged at the partners, but the look on their leader's face told them not to even bother asking because they would receive no answers.

Pein's attention returned to them. "So, leave the base immediately. I expect you to get there by nightfall."

Kisame and Itachi shared a look. Kisame grimaced and spoke, "We aren't... at the base at the moment, actually."

Pein's eyes narrowed dangerously at the shark-nin who promptly dropped his gaze. Kisame had had to deal with his partner's doujutsu once, and it was enough to know to be wary of such eyes. Pein turned to Itachi for answers. The Uchiha met the glowing purple with emotionless eyes. He didn't really want to tell Leader about Sakura's escape, but there wasn't much he could do.

"Haruno san..." Itachi looked pointedly at his partner, "...escaped from the base yesterday."

Kisame decided to cut in, having noticed that, as per usual, his partner was going to use as few words as possible to communicate. "We've already retrieved her. We can get her back to base and it will not hinder our mission."

Their leader's gaze was becoming more displeased by the second. His eyes had not left Itachi's as the two seemed to silently battle something out.

"Itachi... I had warned you when you got your... little _pet_, that should she cause problems for the Akatsuki, you would have to get rid of her. I only allowed this because of your valid argument that she would be of use in luring the kyuubi to us. Such has not yet happened, has it, Itachi?"

The sharingan wielder did not budge, but stared blankly back at his leader. The way Pein had said "little pet" made the man's assumption obvious. Why did everyone assume this of the situation between him and Sakura? It bothered him for reasons he couldn't name. The whole world already condemned him as a clan-killing psychopath after all.

Pein continued after his brief pause, "...Take her with you. I want you there as soon as possible, so no time for detours. Perhaps she could even be of use to you. Now, go."

The partners both bowed their heads, before their chakra disappeared from the room.

Turning and walking into the darkness, Pein spoke, "The little Uchiha got rid of Orochimaru sooner than we had expected, but this is fine." He opened a door, blinding light illuminating his orange hair, "Our plans will come to fruition much sooner."

As he walked into the light, before shutting the door a voice reaches his ears, a smirk coming to his lips.

"Yes... soon."

* * *

Sasuke knelt by the river, his fingers folded together in thought. It had only been for an instant, but he had felt his brother's presence. In the next moment, all trace of him was gone. Disappeared. His fingernails dug into his skin in frustration.

He looked around the clearing they were in. Around him, his new teammates rested, waiting for his command. This was the spot he had felt Itachi's chakra. Yet, the place showed no signs of human disturbance at all. To a shinobi, human presence was an easy thing to detect. He supposed it made sense, in a way. His brother was hardly human. A monster couldn't be expected to leave traces like humans.

The Uchiha sighed, shutting his eyes. He knew he was just missing something. They didn't have a direction to go in, since there was no way to tell where Itachi had disappeared to.

As he looked to his teammates, he noticed something... off about them. They all seemed a little out of it. Karin looked like she was going to be sick. Focusing more intently on his surroundings, Sasuke began to feel a familiar unpleasant feeling. His sharingan couldn't detect anything, but he was almost sure of it, now. He should've immediately figured this out. This was Itachi they were dealing with.

Sasuke began a string of hand seals. On the last one, he whispered, "Release", but nothing changed. His shoulders slumped slightly as his eyebrows came together in confusion. After a few minutes' pause, he got an idea. His hands came back together hesitantly, as he began to form new seals.

"...Release."

The world around them seemed to shift. Beside him, he heard Karin groan, and he could see Jugo clenching his head in his hands. After a moment, the strangeness of the feeling disappeared, and his head seemed to clear as if he had been in a deep trance. The four looked around as they realized an important detail of their new surroundings. It was much darker. The sun was already lost behind the trees, though there was still daylight.

He felt so foolish! What on earth had taken him so long to realize he was in a genjutsu?! He hadn't even realized how disoriented he had become. He had felt normal, yet his brain activity had obviously been hindered. His hands shook._ Itachi...still so far..._

"Karin."

The red-head stared at him dumbly, before snapping out of her stupor. "H-hai! Sasuke-kun?"

He could practically see hearts in the girl's eyes, causing him to have to resist rolling his own. He was not in the mood for this. They had already lost so much time.

"Search the area for his chakra."

"'His'?" Her head cocked to the side, before she shot up, "right! _His._" She formed a hand sign, closing her eyes. She turned to the trees as she found leftover traces of the Uchiha's chakra. "This direction." The rest of her team watched as her eyebrows furrowed in concentration and a bead of sweat appeared on her forehead. When she opened her eyes, her worry was plain on her face. She looked to Sasuke.

"It looks like they're heading to Sound."

They looked to Sasuke all with the same expression of silent pleading in their eyes. They had only just left Sound a couple of days ago. None of them wished to go back. Suigetsu groaned in despair. Sasuke's hand unconsciously went to his leg, where he had had a chunk bitten out of him. Karin had healed him for the most part, but she couldn't get rid of it completely. It kept coming back. He contained his grimace before finally letting out a smirk. Itachi would have _lots_ of fun if he was going to Sound.

"Search for any more chakra signatures between here and Rain. In particular, strong chakras."

Again, Karin closed her eyes and searched. "There's a pair of really strong chakra signatures coming from nearby the closest town that's between here and Rain."

"Are they moving?"

"...no."

"Good. That's probably the Akatsuki base Itachi normally stays at. We will wait for him to return from Sound." Suigetsu let out a sigh of relief.

They all began to pick themselves up and get ready to depart. Sasuke looked around the clearing once more. Itachi's genjutsu hadn't just hidden the path he took. It had been hiding the landscape too. Red sharingan eyes took in the crater and the unnatural scattering of rocks by the riverbed. There had been a battle here. Sasuke shrugged it off. Nothing particularly stood out to him.

As they headed off in the direction of Rain, Sasuke spoke.

"We will wait in the town near the base. Then, when he comes, I'll kill him."

Shivers went down the spines of the three beside the Uchiha as they witnessed out of the corners of their eyes the glowing red hate of the sharingan.

* * *

Several hours into the journey to Sound, the mass dangling over Kisame's shoulder began to stir back to life. Sakura's head felt like it was going to murder her. She gained no rest from her sleep, instead she felt bruised and beaten.

"Ugh.. Kisame..." She recognized Samehada, who was inches from her nose. Luckily, the sword was playing nice. " put me down."

The shinobi stopped and the kunnoichi was unceremoniously dumped to the ground. Great. Another bruise to add to her growing collection. She glared up at the towering shark man, noticing the Uchiha behind him. She turned the fury of her gaze upon him, recalling the spinning tomoe that had stolen her consciousness from her earlier.

His gaze was cold as he stared down at her. As cold as she remembered them being in the beginning. She hadn't realized it, but she had begun to see that look less and less since the time she had first been taken. She had become unaccustomed to it. It gave her goosebumps.

An imaged flashed in front of her vision for a moment. Last night... his face had looked so young and innocent. It had been part of the unexplainable force driving her to save his life. Now... well, the two faces, the memory and the one before her eyes clashed so horribly. Was this the same person? Confusion threatened to swallow her. She felt sick.

"You've woken up just in time, little leaf!" Kisame's voice always seemed to irritate her, somehow.

She picked herself up, ceasing her glaring at both of the Akatsuki. Looking around, she became confused. She turned to them questioningly.

"Where are we?"

Kisame pushed aside a branch, allowing the kunnoichi to peek out of the trees. When she looked down, Sakura's face paled. She recognized the place from team seven's time spent searching for Sasuke. It was one of Orochimaru's hideouts. The biggest one they had been able to locate, situated in the base of a mountain. All they could see was the entrance, the rest was hidden, but as they watched, a figure appeared out of the opening.

Itachi joined them, looking down at the beast-like person below. He shared a look with Kisame over Sakura's head. None of them were exactly sensory-type shinobi and they could expect there to be measures in place to keep activities within the base hidden. Yet, they could clearly feel the presence of many strange, powerful chakras like the one from the thing below them. There were no other chakras besides the monstrous ones. Just as they had already figured, the base was abandoned. Every ordinary sound shinobi had disappeared along with Orochimaru, leaving behind the experiments. Leader wanted proof though.

"Sakura," Said girl looked up to meet crimson, "We are going in. You will wait here."

Emerald eyes narrowed. "Oh will I? There's no way, I'm waiting out here."

Itachi opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off as a spider-like creature burst forward from their rear, latching its arms around Sakura. The two Akatsuki tensed, now battle ready. Sakura gasped in pain. Sharingan quickly analyzed, but were soon put to rest as the kunnoichi heaved the thing up and over her shoulder, sending it flying to the ground with a loud crash.

The other one below them, seeing his fallen comrade, looked up to where they stood in the trees. It screeched a terrifying high pitched noise and to their surprise sprouted wings. As it took to the air towards them, more animal-like people came from inside the entrance. Itachi pulled out a kunai, tearing the thing out of the sky with its wing sliced apart.

With the slightest movement, Itachi's lips pursed. Leaving her out here alone would be troublesome. Sakura stepped forward beside him. "Like I said. I'm coming in with you."

Itachi watched her out of the corner of his eye. She had a newly determined look on her face. What was so important about going in with them? ...besides not wanting to stay out here with these things, what would give her that look in her eye?

It didn't take him long to put it together. Whether she normally had the level of chakra-sensing capabilities that they had, she didn't have much chakra now to be able to read the situation like they could. She was hoping to find his brother in there.

"Very well." He took off, cutting a path through the creatures.

Kisame was next. "Do us a favor, little leaf. Try not to get in our way."

Sakura bristled, watching him go. She would be as big of a burden as she wished to be! They weren't her allies. They should _expect_ her to get in their way. She just had to find Sasuke as soon as possible. She followed after the two, rubbing a sore spot on the back of her neck. Getting past all these monsters was not going to be fun.

* * *

**Author's note: Sorry it took so long this time to update, guys! ^-^' I had to get the rest of the story figured out before I could continue writing, because in this chapter I decided to start adding plot :3 I had originally planned to finish and post it over the weekend, but I ended up finding out about a soon-ending art scholarship opportunity that I had to work on instead.**

**Writing Itachi is HARD. I don't feel like I'm doing him justice all. There's no way I could understand the inner workings of his mind, but I'm doing my best to keep him in character. I feel like something's got to change in the relationship and dynamics between Kisame and Itachi. How I'm writing them now is not at all how I usually picture their partnership, I just started off in the middle of the story. I just wanted to make the point clear that Itachi was upset with Kisame for letting Sakura escape, and that he feared/respected Itachi's strength enough to know that angry Itachi was bad news... so, you can probably expect things to change as things go back to normal after Sakura's escape attempt. **

**Unless something comes to mind that I decide to write first, next chapter will get really... exciting :3**

**Again, thanks for reading! Thank you for all the reviews I've been getting. They really help motivate me to keep up with this story. ^-^**


	4. Curse

Sasuke sat on a branch high in the trees. In the distance, he could see the unassuming building that belonged to the Akatsuki. It was hiding in plain sight, really, appearing as an old abandoned temple. Shortly before they had arrived at the spot, Karin had told them that the two chakra signatures had left the building. Luck was on the young Uchiha's side. He didn't need any more pesky Akatsuki in his way. His team would keep Kisame out of his hair while he dealt with Itachi. All there was left to do was wait for them.

Pain shot up from his leg causing Sasuke to wince and grab at his wounded leg. A sudden movement behind him caused him to whirl around into a defensive stance.

"Hey"

Sasuke calmed himself, settling back down at the voice of his red-haired teammate. The girl came and sat beside him a little closer than he liked. He eyed her warily as her hand reached toward him. Before their skin made contact, a firm hand went around her wrist, ceasing her movement.

"Sasuke. I can tell it is still hurting you."

"..."

"Let me look at it."

Silence reigned until eventually the Uchiha let out his breath. "Hn." He nodded, letting go of her. As she inspected the wound, he heard her suck in a breath.

"I- it's started to come back again."

He peeked past her bright red hair and caught a glimpse of the skin showing through the hole in his pants. Much like the curse mark on his neck, given by Orochimaru, black markings were forming in a spiral patter outwards from the bite mark. This curse was also created by the snake sannin, but it was designed for a different purpose. Death.

"I've been holding it off, but it isn't going to keep working forever. My medical abilities aren't of a high enough level to deal with this."

She held her palms out above the injury and chakra flooded into it. Like he had noticed before, the black marks receded even less than the time before. It was getting stronger.

Having healed it as much as she could, Karin retracted her hands and the glowing faded. Then, she started to roll up her sleeve. "Here, Sasuke. Maybe this will work better." She held her arm out to him.

Sasuke hesitantly took hold of the offered arm. As he bit into it, he felt her chakra entering his system. Teeth still embedded, he ignored the girl's noises of satisfaction and watched the spot on his leg. The black marks slowly started fading, but soon stopped. He released her arm and closed his eyes. At least the pain had lessened as well.

"Thank you."

Karin pulled herself together and looked at his wound. Her brows knit in worry.

"They're still not gone all the way..."

Sasuke ignored her, turning his back to her. He tried not to think for the moment of how this would probably affect his goals. He heard Karin walk away and jump from the branch. He wouldn't be able to rely on her powers soon. He would need to find someone who could rid him of this curse completely.

A memory came to him. He had been traveling with Orochimaru near the leaf village and had encountered a squad of leaf nin in a bar. They had seemed like very weak shinobi and very foolish for they were talking about the village, paying no heed to their surroundings. From them, he had heard of the Godaime Hokage's apprentice who already seemed to have the potential to outgrow the fifth's medical abilities. His old teammate. _Sakura..._

The idea came with another prospect. He had heard the other rumor that was now circulating about his ex-teammate as well. This new rumor could either make things a whole lot easier for him- or a whole lot more difficult. Sasuke considered the idea. He was so close to getting Itachi though, so there was nothing he could do for now. He had no idea where she even was at the moment...

* * *

Having cut down the creatures blocking their way, the three entered into hideout through the doorway which was shaped like a giant snake head. The tunnel led deep into the ground, getting darker the further they went. Sakura grabbed one of the unused torches off the wall. She looked at it for a second before pursing her lips and looking to Itachi. She held the end out to him with an expectant look on her face. The Uchiha slightly raised an eyebrow before lighting it with a small fire jutsu and continuing down the tunnel. They met a few more of Orochimaru's experiments, but none were too difficult to handle.

As Sakura struggled to use her chakra to search for Sasuke's in this eery place, she became increasingly frustrated by her lack of chakra and the lack of a response from the surrounding area. Besides the creepy chakras from the creatures they'd been dealing with, she hadn't felt a single chakra signature. She was just beginning to realize that this place had been abandoned as Kisame and Itachi stopped in front of a sealed doorway.

Itachi motioned to Kisame who proceeded to smash down the door with Samehada. Sakura coughed as the stale air flew out of the room. It smelled of snakes and rotten things.

"What exactly are we doing here anyways?"

Itachi ignored her as he stepped into the darkness. Sakura humphed. Why did he have to be so- so... _arrogant_!? She turned to Kisame, just daring him to ignore her as well. She blinked as his hand was suddenly held up to her face. She glanced at it before looking back to him, confused. He pointed to his finger where the firelight reflected off of his ring.

"We're here to retrieve Orochimaru's ring."

"Orochimaru's ring?" She raised an eyebrow at him. What would the Akatsuki want with a piece of jewelry? Thinking about it, Sakura realized she had seen the other Akatsuki members wearing similar rings as well. Kisame's had a yellow center whereas she knew from memory that Itachi's was crimson.

The pinkette bit her lip. She could feel something akin to chakra coming from the ring and she reached her hand out. The closer she got, the stronger she felt it. It began to give her a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. And then the hand was gone.

She heard Kisame clear his throat. "Yes. We need it as proof. Now go and help Itachi san search for it. I'll stand guard here and keep out the li'l beasties." He grinned, and as he turned into the darkness, the firelight cast eery shadows across his face.

Sakura shivered. _'beasties'. _The shark-man was just about as much of a beast as the rest of them- if not more monstrous... and _deadly_. She entered through the doorway, leaving him behind. She thought about what he had said. Proof? Of what?

As she entered, she saw that Itachi had found another torch and lit it. His back was to her and he seemed focused on the task before him as he lifted a stack of paper off of a desk. Sakura looked around her. The room was much larger than she had assumed when standing outside of it. It looked like some sort of laboratory. Desks, piled high with scrolls and books, lined the far wall where Itachi was still searching, having paid no attention to her entrance.

She moved towards a shelf, examining the glass jars that lined it. They were filled with dead creatures and body parts and things she couldn't name. Moving to a desk near the one Itachi was perusing, she noticed that most of the equipment on it was medical equipment. Still, there was no sign of a ring. She moved on to the next desk, looking underneath the many stacks of papers.

"So this ring... what makes you so sure it's here?" She asked the question offhandedly, finding it odd that they had come straight to _this_ base and straight to _this_ room and then searching so thoroughly.

"Because," Sakura jumped at the proximity of his voice. "We knew the basic location of the ring... we can sense it."

His arm appeared in her vision as he reached past her to a place above her head.

"You can feel it too, can you not? To an extent..."

Her heart was hammering loudly in her chest. _F-feel it? Feel what? _All she could feel at the moment was the heat radiating from behind her. Her eyes focused on the hand in front of her as it opened a cabinet. Coming from inside the cabinet... she could feel it. Slightly. It was the same chakra that came from Kisame's ring. She hadn't hardly noticed it before. It seemed that the more she acknowledged it, the easier it became to feel. She also felt another source behind her, presumably coming from Itachi's own ring.

She watched him, frozen in place, as he took something from inside the cabinet and moved away from her. She let out a breath, closing her eyes. Pulling herself together, she turned to see what he had found. Expecting a ring, she almost flinched at what he was holding. Was that... _Orochimaru's hand_?! It was shriveled and dried, so it was hard to tell... She noticed the ring on the finger as Itachi began to remove it. A sickening snap sounded as he finally freed it from one of the fingers.

"...Ok, that is seriously disgu-"

Sakura became silent as both she and Itachi turned toward a noise to their left. It was a faint... slithering. It sounded like it was coming from inside the wall.

"...sting..."

"It's time for us to leave." Itachi turned and started walking back to the entrance with Sakura close behind.

"Not arguing with you there..." she whispered, glancing back at the darkness behind her.

They didn't get far before the whole place seemed to explode with stone and rubble. They both jumped away from the avalanche, steering clear of the giant mass of scales unraveling itself before them. The exit was obscured from view as rocks still tumbled down around the massive whole in the wall. The serpent hissed and coiled up, rearing its fangs at the two shinobi.

Itachi vaguely noticed Kisame's muted voice calling to them from outside, but was distracted as the giant snake sprung forward at him. It was a simple matter of dodging- except his movement was halted. Moments before the snake's jaw would snap closed around him, Itachi noticed the boulder under which the end of his cloak was caught. He felt the blood vessels in his eye sting as the advanced stage of the sharingan prepared to manifest itself. It never got the chance to fully engage.

Another explosion ripped through the room and another section of wall was done away with as the weight of the enormous reptile smashed into it. The Uchiha looked to see none other than the little kunnoichi, still in stance, with her fist in the air. He didn't have time to be shocked as in the next moment he witnessed her whole body contort in pain. She clutched her arms to herself and fell to her knees screaming.

He freed himself from the stone and went to her, glancing at the snake. It was lying still for the moment, though it probably wasn't dead. Sakura had gone silent by the time he reached her. He couldn't see her face; it was hidden behind her hair, but he saw how her shoulders shook and where her nails dug into her arms. Chakra overuse? He hadn't even thought that she had had enough chakra to send a snake that big flying with just a punch. Frankly, that would have surprised him even if she had had all of her chakra. Using chakra that you didn't have like that was bound to be painful, but this was...

Itachi pried her fingers from her arms as blood began to drip from them. He felt her lose her control as she jerked violently backwards falling onto her side on the cold, stone floor.

"Ngh!"

One of her hands escaped from his grasp and went to her shoulder. Itachi was at a loss as he stared down at the tears on her lashes. He heard Kisame calling to them, but it was just background noise. Activating the sharingan, he inspected her chakra systems. Her chakra was raging through her pathways at abnormal rates. There was hardly any left, but what little there was, was attacking her own chakra paths. She was literally being torn apart from the inside. It was not her normal chakra. It was different somehow. Changing. He saw traces of a foreign chakra and traced it up to where it gathered beneath the hand she held on her shoulder.

The Uchiha lifted her hand away to reveal a bite mark. He recalled her being attacked in the tree outside the base.

Behind them, he heard movement as rocks slowly began shifting. The snake...

"Kisame."

His voice was as calm and quiet as ever, but the rubble blocking the exit was immediately disrupted. The shark-man took one look at the slithering tail of the snake and one look at the quivering kunnoichi on the ground.

"Oh man..."

"I need Samehada."

Kisame smirked at this. _I though you hated Samehada... yet, look who's useful now. _He went to the pair, looking down at the girl. He saw the bite mark and noticed Samehada's reaction to her chakra and to the presence of the other chakra in her system.

"Get rid of it."

"Right."

Kisame lowered his sword to Sakura's neck. The noises of chakra being eaten began coming from the sword, and the girl's eyelids fluttered open. She recoiled from the sword, but was forced to remain still as a heavy foot pressed down on her other shoulder, pinning her.

The shark-man now stood with one leg on each side of her and sword to her neck. It would look rather intimidating if someone didn't know he was saving her life.

Sakura's body began to fall still as the pain slowly began leaving her. Itachi turned from the scene to face the threat that lay behind them.

As Kisame steadily drew out the foreign chakra from the girl beneath him, bright flames lit up the cavernous room along with the high pitched screaming and squealing of the serpent. Before long, the noises died down as did the flames. Most of the harmful chakra was drained from Sakura's system, but that left her with less than she's ever been left with since he had begun periodically draining her over a month ago. If he got rid of any more, he was afraid she wouldn't survive. Her body was producing more already, as was normal for everyone, but the poisonous chakra emanating from her shoulder was fast in changing it into something deadly. It didn't look good for the girl.

"Look at you..." Kisame sighed, "...little leaf."

She was breathing shallow and her eyes were closed. At his whispered words, though, one of her eyes cracked open and looked up at him. He shied away from the almost _grateful_ look in that eye, stepping away from her. Last time he drained her of chakra, he knew she had wanted to murder him for it. He scoffed at the contrast.

He watched his partner as he came up to them. Itachi took in Sakura's stillness. The pain was gone, he could tell, but he also saw the remaining chakra with his sharingan.

"I couldn't get rid of it all, but it looks like it won't kill her immediately."

Itachi nodded to Kisame in silent thanks. Finally paying attention to Sakura's face, he was a little surprised to see her watching them through a half-open eye. He locked gazes with her for a long moment before breaking the contact. He leaned down and picked her up, supporting her light weight with a hand on her back and an arm under her knees.

Kisame led the way back out of Orochimaru's layer, disposing of the few remaining mutations along the way. Soon, they were back out in the light of day, making good time back to the Rain village.

In the back of her mind, Sakura told herself that it should be extremely weird and uncomfortable to be carried like this by Uchiha Itachi, but she didn't dare. She was just too _tired. _Her mind was fighting to give her body rest through unconsciousness, but she fought, like she had been fighting since the pain first began, to stay focused. For there was something very important...

"Itachi?.."

She watched him as his face turned down to look at her. _Such a familiar face..._

"Orochimaru is dead isn't he. That's why you decided to come find his ring..."

The crimson eyes looking down at her withheld nothing. Secret. Guarded. Like always. But then he nodded. She was right. This meant... so many things. She couldn't wrap her mind around it all at the moment. She felt her willpower draining with her question's answer. Her eyes fluttered shut and she whispered one last thought.

"Sasuke..."

* * *

**Author's note: Sorry for such a long wait. My college Comp II class started a few weeks ago and I've been wearing out my writing abilities on essays before getting a chance to work on this. That, and I've been working on my Sakura cosplay as well as trying to finish up some fanart I've been working on. **

**I also apologize for telling you last chapter that something really exciting (or however I put it) was going to happen this chapter. I ended up taking much more time between the events and the thing I was talking about will happen next chapter for sure.**

**So, I hope you enjoyed the new developments! Thank you for reading and like usual, reviews would be so helpful! ^-^**


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